New international companies in Amsterdam increased jobs

The number of international organisations that set up offices in Amsterdam was 139 in 2014 and have increased the number of jobs in the region.

The press release by I Amsterdam stated that these new organisations have brought a total of 1,308 jobs to the region and indicated that this would increase to 2,359 jobs within three years. In addition, international companies that had already established a presence in the region reported creating an additional 1,611 jobs in 2014.

Alderperson, Kajsa Ollongren for Economic Affairs, said: “In our experience, companies usually start off small when entering the European market, but grow to become major players within a few years. The increase in the number of new businesses and jobs shows that Amsterdam is living up to its ranking as the fourth most competitive city in the world.”

An established trend continued in 2014, with most of the companies (33) coming from the ICT sector. US companies Netflix and Uber, for example, chose Amsterdam as the location for their European headquarters. Likewise, Tesla, Palo Alto Networks and Expedia, which have been in the region since 2013, created hundreds of new jobs.

Companies across the globe
North America was responsible for nearly half of the new establishments (66), such as Staples Office Center, which moved its headquarters with 200 jobs from Boston to Amsterdam, and Stryker, a medical technology company, which opened a training centre in addition to a European head office.

Growth from Asian countries remained stable compared to 2013, with 30 new establishments and 198 jobs. Fourteen new Japanese companies, for instance, set up operations in the region. After the United States and United Kingdom, Japan is the largest investor in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.

In 2014, 42 European companies established offices in Amsterdam. The majority of these were marketing and sales firms in the services and creative industries, looking to use Amsterdam as a test market for the introduction of new products in Europe.

The Amsterdam region also attracted 42 head offices and 46 marketing and sales offices in 2014, representing a total of 947 jobs.

Founded in 2008, amsterdam inbusiness is responsible for acquisition in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. It assists international companies setting up shop in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and supports the international business community already present in the area.